AWAKENING

Wednesday 16th September 

“Spirituality guides your life. Culture informs your life.”

- Professor James Small

In a world where we sit for most of the day, shutting down our bodies and concentrating on our work using mental capacities, it’s easy to become disconnected from our physicality. However the way we are in the world and the way we experience life is intricately bound up with the senses especially our kinesthetic sense of movement. This disconnection is to be asleep while in a wakeful state. Sleep in this sense being unaware of life except that narrow aspect we focus on which for many is a small screen.

Becoming awake is not only a matter of connecting to the world around us. When we awaken into our fullness and magnificence we begin to discover that truth – that we are incredible beings of illumination who have the power to change our reality. This is a spiritual awakening to experience every facet of our existence.

In this state it is possible to connect with the archetypes of inner healer and creator we move away from the stories that we have been told by those around us. These stories which we can clearly see in the media are that we are not enough, that we cannot do, that we need someone or something out there to make us better, bigger or beautiful. The truth is that we don’t.

When we enter the dance fully we reach a state where that is quite transcendent where we realise that we are not a body-object dancing in a something-out-there space. In fact we are a body-subject and that our body is the dance and that IT is the experience we are having. By feeling into our movements and feelings, our experience is that we are the dance and that we are creating the experience. This is a powerful spiritual place when we experience agency. This shifts the focus from the world out there to recognising the centrality of our being in our own life. When we give ourselves over to the dance fully we literally shut down the mind – and of course, all the stories we tell ourselves or that have been told to us.

In this space the messages and wisdom of the body and more begin to emerge and we become our own healer. At least once in everyone’s dance experience we have cried, we have laughed, we have been ecstatic, we have been any one of the many emotions of the human condition. These have emerged spontaneously even if afterwards we interpret and rationalise them. A spiritual awakening is not necessarily to climb into a fiery chariot and float into the clouds. It’s a real experience we can have in the here and now through our dance when we become fully present in every sense of the word – when we wake up.


SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

TO DANCE IN AWE

Wednesday 9th September

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, 

but expecting different results.” 

- Albert Einstein 

Dancing under the stars with a bright full moon is most awe-inspiring. In these moments it feels as if my body and mind become mere spectators to the majesty and expansion of the heart. To dance in awe is to experience life from a completely different perspective.

The shaman’s path is to connect with nature, to be in awe of all that is. Being in awe is part of our evolution. Opening up to the strangeness of life is the doorway into the unknown and ultimately to wisdom and knowledge. Awe precedes growth and if we can stand in awe of our dance – we will learn and grow from it.

When the dance becomes routine, a habitual movement that seems to keep expressing the same emotions then we too will be stuck in the same loop of experience. There is no formula for connecting with awe except to look through the eyes of innocence with an open heart. To dance with an open heart is as sure way towards dancing in awe.

LEARNING FROM THE SAN HEALING DANCE

DANCE RELEASE!

Wednesday 2nd September 2020

“I am not so interested in HOW they move as in WHAT moves them.” 

-Pina Bausch, choreographer 

Dancing is really powerful. Studies show that compared to other physical act ivies or exercise studies dance releases a lot more endorphins – the feel good chemical – in your brain. Dancing is also more than just a physical activity as it connects us to the emotional centres of the brain. The music is the doorway to emotions and the movements often reflect these emotions. When we are in a happier mood we have expansive and open movements – much like a smile. In fact a smiling body.

This connection is what prompts an emotional release for many. The dance will change our endogenous mood that is how we are feeling internally. This can be something uncomplicated and upbeat but at other times it could also trigger sadness. During the dance we have an opportunity to go through a cathartic process of letting go or expressing any pent-up emotions.

Going about our ordinary life we don’t always have the opportunity to recognise, connect or deal with emotion. Both the positive and the negative. In our body they are really just energies. Our mind give them meaning. Dance can shift the energies in our body and bring the feelings to the surface – that way we can dance a release!

TEN REASONS TO DANCE

DANCING WITH WISDOM

Wednesday 26th August 2020

“Right may not be expedient, or profitable, but it will satisfy your soul.” 

- Dr. Maya Angelou 

Wisdom is doing the right thing – not only from a moral perspective but what is right for your body, what is right for your mind and what is right for your soul. How will you ever know what IS right? If we try to figure out what is right using our intellect we will be governed only by what we know and what we already believe. To feel into and intuit the wisdom innate in us we need to enter the space of the non-verbal, that is the non-thinking.

Our bodies are fine tuned to intuit what is good and right for our protection and safety. When we eat something that ‘does not agree with us’ our tummy will surely let us know. In as much as our organs send us visceral message and information, our body does the same on a very subtle level. We can FEEL when something is not right.

However to access this wisdom of the body we need to be attuned with our body. DANCE is such a powerful medium for shutting down the verbal, thinking, planning part of our brain. When we do this we enter into a different state of being or experience (vivencia) which awakens our sensitivity to our body and the subtle messages it is sending to us. We can start to feel ‘what is right’ through our dance. This way we begin DANCING WITH WISDOM.

VIDEO: Just do it Right - Dr.Maya Angelou

WHAT IS REAL?

Wednesday 19th August 2020

“There is nothing more real than what cannot be seen 

and there is nothing more real than what cannot be heard.” 

- Confucius 

Where are we when we dance? During these challenging times being in the virtual world of online dancing is our experience any less real? In the shamanic traditions dance is used to escape this everyday world and travel into states of heightened awareness and connection which for different traditions have various names. The San for example believe this other place to be a parallel world called First Creation where they travel to connect with spirit and receive healing.

In our humble way each week as we engage with our ubiquitous ZOOM app we too can use dance to enter into our own world. When we let go and become en-chanted, en-tranced and blissed we are entering a world of our own creation. Is this any less real that our everyday experience?

NO! The power of dance to take us into these other worlds opens up an experience which sometimes feels MORE REAL THAN REAL! What each of us accesses through these experiences is unique and specific to that moment in time which when woven with each other creates the rich tapestry of humanity. In these healing places we are able to let our emotions flow, our thoughts quieten and an intense sense of living emerges through the dance.

DESTINED 2 DANCE

Wednesday 12th August 2020

" I saw an angel in the mirror until I set him free"

Sometimes it seems amazing that we let go and even dance. We have so many obstacles that are put in our way culturally, spiritually and personally. Yet for some the desire to have a deep experience of life pulls us towards the means by which we can achieve it. For the dancer it is the dance.

For me personally it feels as if I did not choose dance, dance chose me. As a youngster I ‘suffered’ the agony of being the only male dancer in a studio filled with giggling teenage girls. Being self-conscious in that environment I was never sure whether the giggles were directed toward my unitard clad self. But once we shared our dance together and we became friends all that melted away.

That is the power of dance, it pulls us as if it is our destiny and once we literally MOVE through our self-conscious and inhibited self we discover a world that is creative, a world that is full of delight and world that is magnificent. Through the dance we do find our way towards a deeper experience of life. For some it is our destiny to dance this experience and to connect with the ever moving cosmic dance that is our magical universe.

PEACE BY DANCE

Wednesday 5th August 2020

"Out of clutter, find simplicity."

- Albert Einstein 

Elusive as peace is, we yearn and strive towards those moments when we can ‘stop the world’ and take a breath. However, the world never stops it is full of life and full of energy. When we are in flow this energy feeds us but when we are in resistance of any kind this energy drains us.

To create peace in our own experience of the world around us we first need to find peace in our own heart. When we connect with our own inner peace the ripple effect as we interact with those around us becomes tangible and felt. Change always starts with us and each action we have has an impact in the world we live in.

It may sound as a contradiction to find peace by dancing but if you think back to the Whirling Dervishes spinning round and round – what do we find in the centre but a moment of eternal stillness. When our dance become harmonious with our being, when our dance flows with ease, it is possible to be in such a wonderful state of being that we find peace, grace and bliss.